Apparently Julia needs some more hair

My mom gave Julia the cute little outfit above complete with "leg warmers". How hilarious is that? Anyway, she was wearing it the other day when we went to Costco. The woman handing out samples commented, "oh how cute, you have 2 little boys". No actually the smaller one is a girl. Poor Julia, this was the second time in the last month that someone thought she was a boy. I know that babies often have their gender mistaken, but a 2 year old child? I have tried putting barrettes and little pony tails in to no avail. She pulls them out the second they go in. So here's to hoping that 2009 brings Julia enough hair to actually get called a girl.

Valentine's Day Fun

Happy Valentine's Day a few days late.

We had a great Valentine's weekend. A friend and I had a fun/ funny adventure making fortune cookies for our husbands. No wonder I have never made them before- they are hard to make. You have to get each step done almost perfectly in order for them to turn out correctly and most of them had some sort of problem- too thick, overdone, underdone, too big, too small. Oh well it was fun and they did taste good.

Sugar cookies- yes they were much easier than fortune cookies to make. Blake had fun decorating them with Daddy's help.

But by and far the funniest thing was the above Valentine's card I received from Blake. He told Mike that he wanted to make me a Valentine's card and so Mike got out all of the stuff. He then started writing a bunch of letters everywhere. (he is very into writing random letters and then asking us "what does that spell". So there you have it, somehow my child was able to write 2 very legible but probably not valentines appropriate words, "Blob" and "poo" I promise I didn't teach him that.

I love the rain

Around here we don't get too many changes in the weather. So I REALLY REALLY like it when it rains. It's just enough to make me happy and not enough to drive me crazy.
Is there anything better than going to bed at night listening to the rain?
And that's it.

I usually like being from a big family.......

I have always really enjoyed being part of a big family. I love having 6 siblings whom I love and admire. If I throw out my maiden name to someone from Palos Verdes they invariably know one of my older siblings or parents. They lived in the same house for 25 years. Then right before high school my dad transfered jobs to Michigan for a few years. It was really really weird being in a place where nobody knew us and none of my teachers compared me to my older siblings. My parents moved back to Palos Verdes (to the same house) when I was in college.
That being said, I'm getting kind of creeped out by all the random people on facebook who are trying to "friend" me. SOme of these people are people I don't even know but don't worry they know me because they used to date my older sibling, or know my mom or dad, or were friends with my older siblings. Sorry but if I don't know you in real life, you are not going to be my facebook "friend", even if you used to kiss my brother.
This is when facebook is just plain weird weird weird. Go away creepy people.

Happy Birthday Big Girl

Yesterday our baby girl turned 2 and so we celebrated today at Jean's house. We always have such a fun time with them and I feel so blessed to live so close to my sister.

I am so grateful for this beautiful sweet little daughter. I love here more than I can even express, and I hope she will always feel this. There really is nothing like having a daughter.

Since Julia is VERY into animals I decided she needed a doggy cake. Since neither Mike nor I have any artistic skills we had to once again outsource the frosting of the cake. I made Jean and her kids do the dirty work and Julia loved the doggy they made. Thanks helpers!!!!

Hopefully we can delay Blake's birthday party until my VERY artistic nephew gets home from BYU this Spring because he has already put in his order for a tiger cake.

When Sewing is NOT fun

Sewing is usually a nice outlet for me. I get to do something that does not involve children (although it usually benefits one of them) and I enjoy the creative process of making something from start to finish in a relatively short span of time. (hence the reason I will NEVER enjoy scrap booking-never ending project)
However there are certain times when I just want to beat my head against the wall, throw the dumb thing away, and never touch my machine again. This almost finished dress for Julia's 2nd birthday is one such project. I altered the pattern and then realized halfway through the dress t that I had altered it to be too small so I had to re-alter it. I have never made something like it before and while it isn't necessarily hard, it has just been sooooo time consuming for some reason. And the worst part is that even though I want to throw it away and just make her a different dress I can't justify wasting all those hours. grrrrrrrrr!!!!! And now I must return to my sewing room dungeon to finish this dumb thing before her birthday.
Wish me luck.

Help us eat more beef

While most people are trying to not eat as much red meat, I am trying to add it in our diet. I have never been a big beef eater. I hate steak and pretty much avoid all red meat. I'm just not a meat and potatoes kind of girl. I figure that it isn't really healthy anyway, and the sight of a big slab of raw bloody beef has always made me feel sick. We eat tons of chicken, pork, fish and shrimp but I probably only serve red meat for dinner once every month or two. In the summer Mike will buy steaks and grill them so at least he gets steak once in awhile.

But being that this is a new year, one of my new years resolutions is to overcome my beef aversion. I know that my poor husband would like to eat more red meat and so I really want to serve it more. My problem is that I don't really know what to do with it. I'm overwhelmed by the amount of "beef" choices at the grocery store. Is ribeye better than round etc etc. So this is why I am blogging about it. Do any of you out there have some good beef recipes they could send me. Pretty much the only beef I know how to make is barbecued beef brisket in the oven and chili made with stew meat. I feel kind of lame admitting that I have no clue how to cook beef, but alas it is true. Please help me fulfill my new years resolution of serving beef once a week.